Jack Curley
| Jacques Schuel | |
|---|---|
Publicity still of Jack Curley circa 1910.
|
|
| Born |
July 4, 1876 San Francisco, California, United States |
| Died | July 12, 1937 (aged 61) Great Neck, Long Island |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Jack Curley |
| Debut | 1907 |
Jack Curley (July 4, 1876 - July 12, 1937), born Jacques Armand Schuel, was a sports promoter of the early 1900s. He managed several high-profile boxing events around the turn-of-the-century and he also established professional wrestling as a viable business in the big city, and he eventually built the New York City office into an industry power while negotiating an agreement between the nation’s most powerful regional territories.
Curley was born in San Francisco on July 4, 1876 after his parents fled France following the Franco-Prussian War. Nevertheless, they soon returned to Europe, and young Jacques spent his childhood near Strassburg and Paris before moving back to San Francisco as a teenager. Following school, he worked as a newspaper copy boy, and he then took a job at a saloon owned by ex-prize fighter George La Blanche. At age 16, he ran away from home and changed his name to Jack Curley while taking a job at the World’s Fair in Chicago. He then worked as a reporter for the Chicago Dispatch, but soon lost his job and suffered through hunger while looking for work. Then in September 1893, he was hired by promoter/manager P.J. Carroll to run his local gym; and Curley assisted many of the fighters in their training, most notably including World Welterweight Champion Tommy Ryan. By 1896, Curley had accumulated enough contacts within the industry that he moved to St. Louis and began promoting his own boxing cards. He eventually returned to Chicago a few years later; and in 1901, he became the city’s correspondent for The Police News, one of the nation’s top fight publications. In the years that followed, he also managed some of the era’s premier boxers, including George Gardiner, Jimmy Gardner, Jim Flynn, Georges Carpentier and Jess Willard.
...
Wikipedia